Europe. When the last Balkan War had shown the inner power of the South
Slavs, I greeted in it the disintegration of the Turkish Empire, which
would be followed by the disintegration of the three other
Empires--Austria, Russia, and Germany--so as to open the way for two,
three, or more federations. A South Slavonic federation--the Balkan
United State was the dream of Bakunin--would be followed by a free
Poland, free Finland, Free Caucasia, free Siberia, federated for peace
purposes. Yes, dear Mr. Kelly, you are right, we are on the eve of great
events in Europe. Warmest wishes that this should become a reality, or
receive a sound beginning of realization, during the coming new year,
and my very best wishes to you of health and vigour.--Sincerely yours,
"P. KROPOTKIN."
* * * * *
SERVIA.
"We are therefore justified in declining to accept such evidence. We are
witnessing the birththroes of a new nation, the triumph of the idea of
national unity among the disunited Southern Slavs, and it is the duty of
Britain and France, whose Fleets are now operating on the Adriatic, to
insist upon a just and permanent solution, based upon the principle of
nationality and the wishes of the Southern Slav race. Only by treating
the problem as an organic whole and avoiding patchwork we can hope to
remove one of the chief danger centres in Europe."--_Lecture at Essex
Hall, November 13, 1914, by R.W. Seton Watson_.
* * * * *
THE BATTLEFIELD.
"Then the camps of the wounded--O heavens what scene is this?--is this
indeed _humanity_--these butchers' shambles? There are several of them.
There they lie, in the largest, in an open space in the woods, from two
hundred to three hundred poor fellows--the groans and screams--the odour
of blood, mixed with the fresh scent of the night, the grass, the
trees--that slaughter-house! Oh, well is it their mothers, their sisters
cannot see them--cannot conceive and never conceived these things.
"One man is shot by a shell, both in the arm and leg--both are
amputated--there lie the rejected members. Some have their legs blown
off--some bullets through the breast--some indescribably horrid wounds
in the face or head, all mutilated, sickening, torn, gouged out--some in
the abdomen--some mere boys--many rebels, badly hurt--they take their
regular turns with the rest, just the same as any--the surgeons use them
just the same. Such is the camp of the wounded--such a fragment, a
reflection afar off of the bloody scene--while all over the clear, large
moon comes out at times softly, quietly shining.
"Amid the woods, the scene of flitting souls--amid the crack and crash
and yelling sounds--the impalpable perfume of the woods--and yet the
pungent, stifling smoke--the radiance of the moon, looking from heaven
at intervals so placid--the sky so heavenly--the clear-obscure up there,
those buoyant upper oceans--a few large, placid stars beyond, coming
silently and languidly out, and then disappearing--the melancholy,
draperied night above, around. And never one more desperate in any age
or land--both parties now in force--masses--no fancy battle, no
semi-play, but fierce and savage demons fighting there--courage and
scorn of death is the rule, exceptions almost none."--_From Walt
Whitman_.
* * * * *
CHINESE CHRISTIANS ON THE WAR.
"The most remarkable attitude yet taken in regard to the war by any body
of people in the world is that of the native Christian Churches in
China. I was told a fortnight ago by a missionary just returned from
China that the Chinese Christians are holding daily prayer meetings to
pray for peace. They are also praying earnestly that the Christians in
Europe may be forgiven for killing each other, and, in particular, that
the British and German churches and ministers may be forgiven for the
blasphemy of praying to the Common Father for victory over one another,
_i.e._ for Divine assistance in smashing and maiming and murdering more
of their fellow Christians. I am also told that these Chinese Christians
appreciate perfectly that for the most part the people to be killed are
helpless, innocent workmen, who have had nothing to do with the cause of
all the trouble.
"That action of the Chinamen is of the essence of real Christianity. It
is the real spirit. It has been expressed in Europe only by the Pope, on
the one hand, and, on the other, by the Socialists of the neutral
countries and by the I.L.P. in England. It is the echo of the angel song
of the first Christmas two thousand years ago. It is the true note, the
eternal note. It is the note which will bring mankind back to its senses
when the hideous passions, the false idealisms, and the sordid greeds
behind this world tragedy are shown up for what they are."--_By Dr.
Alfred Salter in "The Labour Leader," December_ 31, 1914.
* * * * *
ESSENTIAL FRIENDLINESS OF PEOPLES.
"This essential friendliness, not between nations, but between people of
different nations, is one of the biggest facts of civilization. And yet
it has counted for so little that half the nations in Europe are
fighting one another. Are the causes, then, that have set us fighting
stronger still? Yes, when it is a question of national conscience. And
one must regretfully say yes, as long as it is possible for those who
rule nations and desire war to carry out their will.
"Is that wicked, mediaeval power--in the hands of the few, but still
strong enough to overrule the natural tendencies of peoples towards
peace and friendship and to turn their likings into hatreds--is it going
to continue when this war is over? Who can doubt, if it were possible to
take a plebiscite of all the nations who are fighting now as to whether
international disputes should be settled by war or arbitration, what the
result would be? Is the desire of the many to have its chance when this
war shall be ended, or shall we submit ourselves again to be dominated
by the desire of the few?"--_From "The Daily News," October_ 5, 1914.
"At one spot where there had been a fierce hand-to-hand fight there
were indications that the combatants when wounded had shared their
water-bottles. Near them were a Briton and a Frenchman whose cold hands
were clasped in death, a touching symbol of the unity of the two nations
in this terrible conflict."--_From "The Sheffield Telegraph," November
14, 1914._
* * * * *
RECONCILIATION IN DEATH.
_Letter written by a French cavalry officer as he lay wounded and dying
in Flanders._
"There are two other men lying near me, and I do not think there is much
hope for them either. One is an officer of a Scottish regiment, and the
other a private in the Uhlans. They were struck down after me, and when
I came to myself I found them bending over me rendering first aid.
"The Britisher was pouring water down my throat from his flask, while
the German was endeavouring to staunch my wound with an antiseptic
preparation served out to them by their medical corps. The Highlander
had one of his legs shattered, and the German had several pieces of
shrapnel buried in his side.
"In spite of their own sufferings they were trying to help me, and when
I was fully conscious again the German gave us a morphia injection and
took one himself. His medical corps had also provided him with the
injection and the needle, together with printed instructions for its
use.
"After the injection, feeling wonderfully at ease, we spoke of the lives
we had lived before the war. We all spoke English, and we talked of the
women we had left at home. Both the German and the Britisher had only
been married a year.
"I wondered, and I suppose the others did, why we had fought each other
at all. I looked at the Highlander, who was falling to sleep exhausted,
and in spite of his drawn face and mud-stained uniform he looked the
embodiment of freedom. Then I thought of the tricolor of France, and all
that France had done for liberty. Then I watched the German, who had
ceased to speak. He had taken a prayer-book from his knapsack, and was
trying to read a service for soldiers wounded in battle."
The letter ends with a reference to the failing light and the roar of
the guns. It was found at the dead officer's side by a Red Cross file,
and was forwarded to his fiancée.--_From "The Daily Citizen," December
21, 1914._
* * * * *
CHRISTMAS, 1914.
_Letters from the Front (from the Daily Press)._
"Last night (Christmas Eve) was the weirdest stunt I have ever seen. All
day the Germans had been sniping industriously, with some success, but
after sunset they started singing, and we replied with carols. Then they
shouted, 'Happy Christmas!' to us, and some of us replied in German. It
was a topping moonlight night, and we carried on long conversations, and
kept singing to each other and cheering. Later they asked us to send one
man out to the middle, between the trenches, with a cake, and they would
give us a bottle of wine.
"Hunt went out, and five of them came out and gave him the wine,
cigarettes, and cigars. After that you could hear them for a long time
calling from half-way, 'Engleeshman, kom hier.' So one or two more of
our chaps went out and exchanged cigarettes, etc., and they all seemed
decent fellows."
* * * * *
"We had quite a sing-song last night (Christmas Eve)," says one writer.
"The Germans gave a song, and then our chaps gave them one in return. A
German that could speak English, and some others, came right up to our
trenches, and we gave them cigarettes and papers to read, as they never
get any news, and then we let them walk back to their own trenches. Then
our chaps went over to their trenches, and they let them come back all
right. About five o'clock on Christmas Eve one of them shouted across
and told us that if we did not fire on them they would not open fire on
us, and so the officers agreed. About twenty of them came up all at
once and started chatting away to our chaps like old chums, and neither
side attempted to shoot."
* * * * *
"I suppose I have experienced about the most extraordinary Christmas one
could conceive. About seven o'clock on Christmas Eve the Saxons, who are
entrenched about seventy yards from our trenches, began singing. They
had a band playing, and our chaps cheered and shouted to them. After
some time they stood on the top of their trenches, and we did likewise.
We mutually agreed to cease fire, and all night we sang and shouted to
each other. To cap everything, their band played 'God save the King.'
"When daylight came two of our fellows, at the invitation of the enemy,
left the trenches, met half-way, and drank together. That completed it.
They said they would not fire if we did not; so after that we strolled
about talking to each other."
* * * * *
"On Christmas morning it was very foggy, so we had a short run on the
top of the trenches to get warm. When the fog lifted we, as well as the
Germans, were exposed. No firing occurred, and the Germans began to wave
umbrellas and rifles, and we answered. They sang and we sang. When we
met we found they were fairly old fellows. They gave us sausages,
cigars, sweets, and perkin. We mixed together, played mouth-organs, and
took part in dances. My word! the Germans can't half sing part-songs. We
exchanged addresses and souvenirs, and when the time came we shook hands
and saluted each other, returning to our trenches."
* * * * *
"On Christmas morning one of the Germans came out of a trench and held
up his hands. Then lots of us did the same, and we met half-way, and for
the rest of the day we fraternized, exchanging cigars, cigarettes, and
souvenirs. The Germans also gave us sausages, and we gave them some of
our food. The Scotsmen then started the bagpipes, and we had a rare old
jollification, which included football, in which the Germans took part.
The Germans said they were tired of the war, and wished it was over.
Next day we got an order that all communication and friendly intercourse
must cease."
* * * * *
"I went up into the trenches on Christmas night. One wouldn't have
thought there was a war going on. All day our soldiers and the Germans
were talking and singing half-way between the opposing trenches. The
space was filled with English and Germans handing one another cigars. At
night we sang carols."
* * * * *
EXTRACT FROM A LETTER PUBLISHED BY THE "_Berliner Tageblatt_" OF
DECEMBER 24, 1914.
The author of the letter is Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, a captain
of the reserves and Prussian "Landrat," obviously a kinsman of the late
diplomatist and Ambassador in London. He wrote on October 18 from the
trenches. He said:--
"Whoever fights in this war in the front ranks, whoever realizes all the
misery and unspeakable wretchedness caused by a modern war ... will
unavoidably arrive at the conviction, if he had not acquired it earlier,
that mankind must find a way of overcoming war. It is untrue that
eternal peace is a dream, and not even a beautiful one. A time will and
must arrive which will no longer know war, and this time will mark a
gigantic progress in comparison with our own. Just as human morality has
overcome the war of all against all; just as the individual had to
accustom himself to seek redress of his grievances at the hands of the
State after blood feuds and duels had been banished by civil peace, so
in their development will the nations discover ways and means to settle
budding conflicts not by means of wars, but in some other regulated
fashion, irrespective of what each of us individually may think."
Unfortunately, the writer of this thoughtful letter fell on the
battlefield.
THE END